Exploring some of the country's most remote beaches is one of the perks of working in mainland Australia's northernmost police station, but officers there never thought they would find a real-life message in a bottle washed up on the shore.

Off-duty officers from Bamaga police station, more than 950 kilometres north of Cairns on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, were combing the beach at Ussher Point when they made the legendary discovery.

"There's plenty of bottles and plastic and glass that get washed up on the beach and we're always having a bit of a look, hopeful that one day we'll find that elusive message in a bottle," Sergeant Suzie MacDonald said.

"On this occasion I saw a few different bottles laying on the beach, but there was one special one that caught my eye.

"The first thing I did was pick it up off the beach and hold it up in the air and go a big 'Woohoo' to let the others know what I'd found."

A closer inspection of the bottle revealed that it was harbouring more than just one message; there were in fact five, four written in English and one in French.

Resisting the urge to open the bottle there and then, the officers spent the three-hour return drive to Bamaga discussing possible contents of the mysterious messages.

"We brought it back to the station and opened it there in front of some other friends and colleagues," Sgt MacDonald said.

She said despite some serious sun bleaching, the messages on the notes were still legible and it was discovered the bottle had been thrown into in the ocean nearly two years before it was found.

"One of [the messages] is written in French so we had to get that translated," she said.

"But it appears that a group of about five friends were on a sailing adventure around the Galapagos Islands and French Polynesia and one night they decided to scribble little messages, put them in a bottle and send it on its way.

"Where it was thrown in the water is nearly 14,000 kilometres away from where it ended up and there are so many islands and sand cays in between here and there.

"For it to make its way unbroken and undamaged all the way to a remote beach in Far North Queensland and then to be found is amazing."

Sgt MacDonald said she and her colleagues would use contact details left on the messages to try and track down the scribes, one of whom they know lives in Illinois, USA.

"We want to let them know where their bottle ended up and hopefully it's a bit of closure to their story as well."

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